Changes for Round 2 v Western Bulldogs

[Ludwig]

Based on the first round games, it seems the umpires are cracking down on even minor infractions from defenders in marking contests. Reg had 4 frees called on him and may struggle this year if these interpretations remain. It should help our tall forwards however. Strategically, we can't have the ball coming into our defence as often as it has and hope to keep oppositions to low scores. We need to restructure our defence to get more effective rebound rather than relying of just defending well.

It's a real blow losing Rampe, as he is so often the key to getting the ball out of our defence. It's hard to say what the story is with Talia. He played in the first JLT game and doesn't seem to have missed any part of the pre season, so it must be on form that is keeping him from consideration, if that is in fact the case. Melican, however, was in good form, but has not received a mention either. It would be nice to know more about how our non senior players are going. The club has been very secretive under Longmire and it's been nearly impossible to get any insights into how things are going behind the scenes.

The Bulldogs have also lost an important defender in Dale Morris. Tom Campbell looks a probable inclusion to play in the ruck, which will allow Tom Boyd to move forward. It makes for some tough matchups against powerful opponents in Cloke, Boyd, Cremari and Stringer. I wouldn't say it's a new system at the Bulldogs, but they rotated lots of players forward which made matchups very difficult. They will force opponents to be very flexible in their defence. They actually played poorly and it was only that Collingwood played worse that got them the victory. Collingwood's top 4 classy midfielders did very well, but the rest of the team let them down. The skill errors from both sides were shocking at times.

Longmire talks a lot about being competitive, so it's hard to see how Towers continues to get games. Edwards would seem the most likely replacement if a change were to come.

Changes:
Out: Rampe, Robinson, Towers
In: Aliir, Newman, Edwards

Mills moves to the midfield as the effective replacement for Robinson.

[liz]

I'd be in favour of moving Mills to the midfield were it not for the loss of Rampe. I think his presence as a cool head, strong reader of the play and good decision maker will be even more critical in the absence of Dane.

[bloodspirit]

I'd be in favour of moving Mills to the midfield were it not for the loss of Rampe. I think his presence as a cool head, strong reader of the play and good decision maker will be even more critical in the absence of Dane.

None of those appellations should properly be applied to Towers but it wouldn't amaze me if Rampe's absence somehow conspires to save Towers losing his place too. I agree that the loss of Rampe increases the case for Laidler to stay because we need his experience and also increases the need for Mills to stay in the backline with only occasional forays into the midfield.

[Nico]

Or will they roll the dice and bring in a couple of untried players. Can we say we are rebuilding anybody!

I think they should move Lloyd up the ground and play genuine backmen or is that backpeople.

[Ludwig]

Both Mills and Lloyd are very stabilizing players in our defence, because they are both good and quick decision makers. But I would rather see both playing more in the midfield behind the ball and setting up play. All midfielders drop back to help in defence, but I think both could be more useful if given more freedom in the midfield rather than getting tied down to one on one defensive matchups. Mills found it hard going against Aaron Young and will be out matched by the strength of Cremari and Stringer.

As the season progresses, I would be looking to construct a back 7 around 3 tall defenders in Reg, AA and one of Melican, Talia or AJ. The other 4 would be Rampe, Newman, Smith and Marsh. Once the NEAFL regular season gets going we will get a better idea of who is knocking on the door for senior selection.

[Sandrevan]

Bad news about Rampe - now all we need is for Buddy to break his jaw in a training accident.

I hope AA is ready to come in.
Can we have someone in the forward line who wants to apply some forward pressure - anyone? Towers, Cunningham?

Not looking forward to Friday night.

[Ludwig]

Or will they roll the dice and bring in a couple of untried players. Can we say we are rebuilding anybody!

I think they should move Lloyd up the ground and play genuine backmen or is that backpeople.

Was that a backhand slap on Harry Cunningham?

I agree about rolling the dice. I feel we roll the dice every time Towers is included in the side and we certainly are rolling the dice with Oliver Florent at this stage.

Last year we seemed to roll the dice when the outlook for the season was much lower and the youngsters came through for the most part. We find ourselves a bit light on small forwards, especially with Papley, Heeney and Rohan out. But we've drafted to fix this with Florent, Hayward and Fisher, who all look to be good prospects. What we do have this year is the product of our drafting from the last few years when we looked to rebuild our defence. Now those players are coming through and should be ready to be given a go with senior selection. We have defenders. Let's play them.

[Boddo]

Bad news about Rampe - now all we need is for Buddy to break his jaw in a training accident.

I hope AA is ready to come in.
Can we have someone in the forward line who wants to apply some forward pressure - anyone? Towers, Cunningham?

Not looking forward to Friday night.

I am. As much as it appears doom n gloom. The game time getting put into younger players in big games is invaluable. Florent learns a massive amount out of these games, Foote who everyone forgets played only his 2nd game, Marsh testing himself against a side in which he was left out of the GFetc. Games like this tells the coaching committee who can handle the big stage and who can't. We will get our injured players back as the year goes on and times like this only tests our depth and hopefully improves it. Plus I actually think we can win. WB didn't look that great against a very disappointing magpie side.

[wolftone57]

Was that a backhand slap on Harry Cunningham?

I agree about rolling the dice. I feel we roll the dice every time Towers is included in the side and we certainly are rolling the dice with Oliver Florent at this stage.

Last year we seemed to roll the dice when the outlook for the season was much lower and the youngsters came through for the most part. We find ourselves a bit light on small forwards, especially with Papley, Heeney and Rohan out. But we've drafted to fix this with Florent, Hayward and Fisher, who all look to be good prospects. What we do have this year is the product of our drafting from the last few years when we looked to rebuild our defence. Now those players are coming through and should be ready to be given a go with senior selection. We have defenders. Let's play them.

Florent was drafted a mid not forward. he is apparently not a very good forward and kicks most of his goals when on the ball. fisher hasn't really got a go and I think he is a player I'd be interested in seeing more of. I thought him pretty good in the Intra. Young Hayward will progress in the next few weeks as he gets more game time in. He had a short pre-season due to an injury.

Harry is problematic for me. Last week he was running along beside a Port player for 30 metres or more and only corralled him by continuing to run about 3 metres alongside him. Not once did he endeavour to tackle. I was so disappointed I was wondering if he had lost his pace. The main reasoin Harry continues to get a game is his pace. His delivery comes next. Neither were on show last week. Bring back Gazza & Paps please.

[stevoswan]

Just heard about Rampe on the news........sheese, is this going to be 'one of those seasons'?

[wolftone57]

Not looking forward to this week minus Ramps. I think AA, if he is ready needs to come in. If not then Melican. We need the extra tall. That killed us last week. Not being able to change Reg and having Ramps and Laids playing way above their height hurt us.

I think Edwards has to get a go. He has ticked all the right boxes. The advantage of playing him is his pace and delivery.

Maybe Newman could be a good player to bring in to the backline.

I'm not making a call this week. Last week's team took me by surprise. We needed an extra tall and I believe the selectors erred in not picking one. Ramps was too tied up to be an attacking influence, not good. Kizza was terrible in the first half. Sure he got the ball but his delivery was crap due to lack of match practice. Mind you he wasn't much better in the second half. But he had a lot of mates, I hope your reading this Hannas. The coaches in my humble opinion actually picked non match fit or out of form players last week over form players, Melican the example. we rolled the dice last year and played 5 first gamers against Collingwood and it paid off. this year we relied on out of form experienced players and came a cropper.

[Scottee]

Based on the first round games, it seems the umpires are cracking down on even minor infractions from defenders in marking contests. Reg had 4 frees called on him and may struggle this year if these interpretations remain. It should help our tall forwards however. Strategically, we can't have the ball coming into our defence as often as it has and hope to keep oppositions to low scores. We need to restructure our defence to get more effective rebound rather than relying of just defending well.

It's a real blow losing Rampe, as he is so often the key to getting the ball out of our defence. It's hard to say what the story is with Talia. He played in the first JLT game and doesn't seem to have missed any part of the pre season, so it must be on form that is keeping him from consideration, if that is in fact the case. Melican, however, was in good form, but has not received a mention either. It would be nice to know more about how our non senior players are going. The club has been very secretive under Longmire and it's been nearly impossible to get any insights into how things are going behind the scenes.

The Bulldogs have also lost an important defender in Dale Morris. Tom Campbell looks a probable inclusion to play in the ruck, which will allow Tom Boyd to move forward. It makes for some tough matchups against powerful opponents in Cloke, Boyd, Cremari and Stringer. I wouldn't say it's a new system at the Bulldogs, but they rotated lots of players forward which made matchups very difficult. They will force opponents to be very flexible in their defence. They actually played poorly and it was only that Collingwood played worse that got them the victory. Collingwood's top 4 classy midfielders did very well, but the rest of the team let them down. The skill errors from both sides were shocking at times.

Longmire talks a lot about being competitive, so it's hard to see how Towers continues to get games. Edwards would seem the most likely replacement if a change were to come.

Changes:
Out: Rampe, Robinson, Towers
In: Aliir, Newman, Edwards

Mills moves to the midfield as the effective replacement for Robinson.

You've just convinced me that Melican should come in based on the match ups.

Sent from my SM-T805Y using Tapatalk

[MattW]

Loved Longmire's wry presser, as if kind of impressed by the absurdity of Rampe's injury.

Found his comments on Aliir in that presser pretty interesting. Clearly no gold card. Still, seems he'll play and reckon he's the kind of dude to turn it on against form.

Anyway, based on that presser, I'll go:

OUT: Robinson, Rampe, Towers
IN: Edwards, Aliir, Hayward

On Talia, Longmire's comments in various interviews suggest he's not convinced by his attitude and will need to see sustained high performance at NEAFL level. Fair enough.

- - - Updated - - -

If I was at that presser, I'd have asked about Hannebery's game. The low minutes and general lethargy.

[Mug Punter]

OUT; Robinson Rampe Towers Foote
IN: Aliir Melican Edwards Hayward

Foote and Towers quite simply cannot be kept on after their poor performances on the weekend.

I'd give Mills a full run through the mids.

Talk of a rebuild after one game is quite frankly ridiculous. I trust our leaders to turn up Friday

[Auntie.Gerald]

6 players not in the team Rd 1 from our GF team

To make another 4 changes would be 10 !!

That is a lot of change for any team to cope with and to build cohesion

Agree AA is an automatic in